FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a prior art mass production Quality Assurance (QA) procedure.
Suppose a mass production physical product 16A1, such as an integrated circuit, is examined by a QA station 16B1, including a volt meter 12B2 for examining a “point” 12B1 (electric potential difference between two points) of physical product 16A1, and a thermometer 12A2 for examining a point 12A1 of physical product 16A1.
Suppose volt meter 12B2 has measured 18 volt, enumerated 12B3, providing a corresponding signal 12B4; and that thermometer 12A2 has measured 31 deg C., enumerated 12A3, providing a corresponding signal 12A4;
The term “plain text” refers herein to a text which is not binary.
A local computer 16C1 accompanied to QA station 16B1 receives signals 12A4 and 12B4, and produces therefrom a plain text file 14A1. Plain text file 14A1 may be displayed on a screen 26 for being viewed by the QA station operator 32. According to the example, screen 26 displays 31 volt on point A and 18 deg C. on point B. Operator 32 qualifies or rejects physical product 16A1, based on the results.
Plain text file 14A1 is copied to a file 14B1 in a computer 16E of the human human developer 28 of physical product 16A1, through the internet 16D, for being viewed by human developer 28.
FIG. 2 is a schematic form of the files described in FIG. 1.
Each of files 14A1 and 14B1 may include an indication 12A5 of point 12A1, a pre-determined separating characters 12A6, and a plain text 12A7 of signal 12A4; and similarly may include an indication 12B5 of point 12B1, a pre-determined separating characters 12B6, and a plain text 12B7 of signal 12B4, being a format 30A.
FIG. 3 describes handling of a plurality of procedures of FIG. 1.
Suppose the first manufactured physical product 16A1 of FIG. 1 is examined by QA station 16B1 of FIG. 1, for producing plain text file 14A1 in local computer 16C1, and plain text file 14A1 is copied to plain text file 14B1 in computer 16E; and then a second manufactured physical product 16A2 is examined again by QA station 16B1 of FIG. 1, for producing a plain text file 14A2 also in local computer 16C1, and plain text file 14A2 is copied to plain text file 14B2 in computer 16E.
In this case, since both files 14B1 and 14B2 have been produced by the same QA station 16B1 and local computer 16C1, thus having the same formatting, described in FIG. 2, then computer 16E may use an application for displaying the measurements indicated by plain text files 14A1 and 14B2 one beside the other for comparing therebetween. In the example of FIG. 1 having 2 measurements for file 14B1, and thus having 2 measurements for file 14B2, the application may produce a graph or a spreadsheet 16G for displaying the 2+2=4 measurements in a comparing form.
However, suppose the second manufactured physical product 16A2 or another physical product is examined by a QA station 16B2, for producing a plain text file 14A3 in a computer 16C2, being local to QA station 16B2, and plain text file 14A3 is copied to plain text file 14B3 in computer 16E, then computer 16E cannot display the measurements of plain text files 14A1 and 14B3 one beside the other for comparing therebetween.
Computer 16E cannot display the measurements indicated by plain text files 14A1 and 14B3 one beside the other, since files 14B1 and 14B3 have been produced by different QA stations, namely by 16B1 and 16B2, and by different local computers, namely by 16C1 and 16C2, thus typically having a different formatting from that described in FIG. 2.
Thus, the human developer 28, being acquainted with the physical product, lacks tools for comparing failures reported by QA station operator 32, for guiding QA station operator 32, how to improve the manufacturing or the examining of the next physical products.
FIG. 4 depicts the difference of the formatting from the formatting of FIG. 2.
Suppose pre-determined separating characters 12A6 of file 14B1 having format 30A as depicted in FIG. 2, may constitute 3 spaces; and pre-determined separating characters 12B6 of file 14B1 as depicted in FIG. 2, may constitute 4 spaces; then file 14B2 should have the same format 30A, namely the same 3 and 4 spaces apply to file 14B2. However, file 14B3 may have a different format 30B which may include 5 spaces instead of the 3 spaces of files 14B1 and 14B2; and 2 spaces of file 14B3 instead of the 4 spaces of files 14B1 and 14B2 having format 30A.
Another aspect is that the measurement of volt meter 12B2, according to the example of measuring 18 volt, enumerated 12B3, must be analyzed by parameters, such as range of the results, e.g., qualifying (“pass”) between 16 volt and 20 volt, and disqualifying (“fail”) otherwise. The problem is that changing of the parameters conventionally requires changing of the running application.